A system of the above-described type is disclosed in DE-OS No. 2 655 948 in which, however, the pickup signals are used only to furnish a counting value which varies as a function of engine speed and to generate a reference mark for initiating ignition.
In the system disclosed in DE-OS No. 2 736 576, two ignition coils are provided for a mechanically immovable high voltage distributor. The current through the ignition coils is controlled by magnets of different polarization. However, the pickup apparatus for this type of signal generator is very complicated, since the signals produced for different engine speeds have very different signal shapes.